|
RAFMAA
CONTROL LINE TEAM AT THE NATIONALS.
The
BMFA Nationals returned to their long-term home of RAF Barkston Heath
again this year after being dispersed in 2003.
Martin Paffett with pitman Neil Tricker and me flying with Mike
North represented RAFMAA in the control line competitions.
Prevented from flying by an ankle injury, Noel Stephenson was
there in a supporting role although he did manage some pitting work in
the Phantom racing.
Kate Barker also kept her dad busy in the mini Goodyear event.
Arrival
on the Friday afternoon was a fairly well controlled affair with
everyone being marshalled into a holding area before being allowed onto
the airfield.
The reason for this was that the RAF still wanted to fly on their
airfield – unreasonable or what?
When the full sized flying had finished it was like a mad Le Mans
start with cars and caravans roaring off in all directions aiming to get
to their own favourite spaces.
Team RAFMAA managed to secure their usual site and pitched the
caravan and tents in quick time to keep out any interlopers.
We also took the precaution of posting notices to warn others
that we intended to be a “Noisy sports area” with hooting and
roaring going on until late.
We didn’t have any complaints this year.
Once
the site was established and pitches reserved for latecomers, a few of
us went down to the flying site to erect the safety cages for the team
race events. This took about 2 hours; it would have been quicker had
more people turned up to help.
With the support structure in place, it was back to the social
aspects of the Nats.
This is the time when we catch up with a lot of folk who you only
see once a year.
There
was a final bit of fettling of the nets required but the competition
started more or less on time on the Saturday morning.
The format for the events was changed for this year, the purpose
being to reduce the amount of classes flown on each day and to decide
the finalists early.
This format has its pros and cons but was generally well
received.
There will undoubtedly be some massaging of the schedule for next
year.
The
first event was F2C Nationale.
Both RAFMAA teams had entered this class.
Martin and Neil were lying third after the first round with Mike
and I 5th.
The second round was flown straight after the first.
We put in a much better performance as did the rest of the field,
Martin and Neil improved by 4 seconds but that was only good enough for
5th.
Mike and I leap frogged them into forth, not quite good enough
for the final (or so we thought).
A
short break followed then it was back in the circle for F2C (the
international class).
We recorded a 3:41.8 in our heat, giving 7th place at
the end of the round.
The F2C competition was run with one round per day and the
weather was to play its part over the weekend.
Open Goodyear was next on the schedule.
This is one of those events that, when it goes well is brilliant,
but more often than not the models are too temperamental.
This proved to be the case with the Barker model.
Severe vibration prevented the motor from running smoothly and a
raceable setting could not be achieved.
The short gap between rounds prevented any real opportunity to
affect repairs so the model was withdrawn from the comp.
This is one of the factors that will be addressed for next
year’s Nats.
The failure of the Open model just left a bit more time to get a
setting on the 1/2A model.
This was the first time for many years that a RAFMAA member had
raced for the RAFMAA 1/2A trophy.
Although entries were low there was still some close racing and
we qualified for the final in a time of 5:24.9 using our BP powered
model.
The heats showed that there was a problem with the port prime on
the motor that would need some attention before Monday’s final.
With all that flying done there was still two rounds of Mini
Goodyear to go. Kate flew her new model in the mini g/y event but just
missed out on the final a lack of out and out airspeed the main reason
and landing away from the pit segment. We opted to fly the last round on
the Sunday, hoping for a bit kinder wind conditions.
 This
year for the first time the catering arrangements were well organised.
Mike’s wife Sharon had offered to provide “Centralised
Messing” for a group of team race fliers.
We are not sure if she knew what she had let herself in for at
the time but cooking for a dozen or so people proved to be very popular
with all concerned.
I certainly haven’t eaten so well at a Nats before!
Sharon has definitely got the job again next year.
It also gave me the time to sort the ½A port prime out.
Sunday
dawned grey and cold with even stronger wind than on Saturday.
Still, a hearty breakfast kept the chill out and fought off the
effects of the previous evening!
Because such a lot of events were completed on Saturday, two
rounds of F2C and 3 rounds of British Goodyear were to be flown on the
Sunday.
Mike and I failed to improve on the first round time but this was
good enough for the semi final and with deteriorating weather we
withdrew from the third round to preserve gear.
The British Goodyear event was straight after the F2C.
Rd 1 saw some difficulties for both the RAFMAA teams.
Martin had a nightmare being disqualified following a mix up at
the end of the race between pilot and pitman.
I put in a really mediocre time of 5:11.8.
Things just had to improve!
Martin recorded 6:27.3 in rd 2; better than a DQ but still poor,
we did 4:46.7 and were laying 5th after two rounds.
Only six teams chose to fly a third round some relying on their
earlier times, some wary of the wind conditions.
Mike and I needed something special to get anywhere near the
final so it was all or nothing.
Some ½ lap pit stops and some fairly spectacular pit work from
Mike gave us the result that we needed.
The time of 4:31.9 was second fastest.
Martin’s woes continued as he failed to finish, retiring on lap
16, after the model was blown into the circle.
He and Neil faired better in the Mini Goodyear event, where they
qualified for the final in 2nd place.
Kate flew her last heat but was unable to progress into the final
despite some good flying.
Martin and Noel flew in the Phantom event but just missed the
final.
More
socialising and eating followed; some of us more pleased with our
results than others – but that happens in racing.
Monday
was to be another busy day.
Our first F2C semi didn’t go well with a slight over compressed
engine cooking resulting in a time of 4:00.6, round two went better
3:38.8 being the outcome.
This was good enough for fifth place overall which we very
pleased with. A
bit off the pace in world terms but in the conditions a good result.
We
went off to prepare for the finals that we had qualified for and were
informed that one of the finalists in F2CN had withdrawn because of the
wind conditions and they wanted to save the model for a competition in
Portugal.
We had finished forth and were therefore promoted into the final.
In
the meantime, Martin and Neil flew the fairly uneventful Mini Goodyear
final finishing second.
The
Brit G/Y final was our first final.
All was going extremely well for the first three pit stops and we
were ahead of the others then disaster struck.
There are only so many ½ lap stops that a model can take and at
the 112 lap point my model had had enough of the abuse and the fuselage
snapped.
The sighs from the crowd said it all really, a bad end to a great
race. However
one of the remaining teams was disqualified for flying offences, which
promoted us to second.
The
½A final was a real
“Tortoise and Hare” affair.
We had good starts at all the stops (the reworked port prime was
working perfectly) and although not the fastest model, it was much more
reliable.
We eventually finished in a time of 8:20.3; not quick at all but
at least we finished; both the other teams failed to do so, and so the
RAFMAA Trophy came home to the RAFMAA.
Our
best race came in the F2CN final.
Again we didn’t have the ultimate airspeed but we had good
range and reliability.
As third qualifiers we had the last choice segment and as a
result I tripped the shut-off on the first take off - I made sure that I
didn’t do it again.
At the end of the race both pitmen of the two lead teams stood up
together claiming victory.
The stopwatches showed that we had finished second by a margin of
0.69 of a second!
Oh if only……!
It’s races that like that make team racing great.
Generally
this was a great Nats.
A few lessons learned on the infrastructure from last year had
been implemented and contributed to the occasion.
The trophies were very good.
The weather did its best to spoil the weekend but spectacularly
failed to do so.
As I’ve always said “A bad day model flying is always better
than a good day at work!”
here’s to next year!
Chris
Barker
rafmaa-controlline@rafmaa.co.uk
|
